The FBI accuses North Korea of the theft of 6.3 billion dollars from Binance

BarcelonaThe US secret services accuse North Korea of being behind this week's cyberattack against the cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance, which according to its officials, suffered a "complex attack" in which 6.3 billion dollars in digital assets were stolen.

In a statement released this Saturday night, the FBI "refers to this malicious cyber activity by North Korea as TraderTraitor" and details that it has observed its actors converting the stolen assets into Ethereum and that it expects them to be "further laundered" by converting them through DeFi and instant exchange services.

According to the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), TraderTraitor is a North Korean-sponsored hacking group that has been engaged in cryptocurrency theft and cyberattacks since at least 2020. CISA believes it is part of the Lazarus Group, which is responsible for several attacks against the cryptocurrency industry through spearphishing and malware campaigns.

After suffering the attack, Binance announced that it had suspended deposits and withdrawals while it conducted security checks, froze funds, and cooperated with authorities to investigate the authorship. It now states that it has been able to cover 90% of the stolen amount and that withdrawals are resuming in phases. The remaining 10% of tokens were "less liquid," it claims, so repurchasing them could take more time. Management has assured that the assets "are safe" and has committed to "covering all losses from the hack with its own funds."

Binance is the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange platform and the theft has had repercussions on market prices. The price of Bitcoin has fallen by more than 3% to around 77,400 dollars, and Ether (ETH) and BNB – the cryptocurrency linked to Binance – have also recorded declines, according to the specialized portal CoinDesk.

Headquarters in Malta

Binance currently operates from Malta, a country in the European Union, although it was founded in 2017 in China and for some years moved its headquarters to Japan. The company has been involved in several scandals and in 2023 was ordered by United States authorities to pay a fine of 4.3 billion dollars after it was proven that it had violated anti-money laundering laws. Likewise, in 2021, the British financial regulator ordered the company to halt its activity in the United Kingdom.

Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, paid more than 800,000 dollars to a lobbyist to secure a pardon from Trump, who granted it to him last October, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal.